Horsetail - Oneonta, and The Fire

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squidvicious
Posts: 525
Joined: May 11th, 2015, 8:41 pm
Location: Troutdale

Horsetail - Oneonta, and The Fire

Post by squidvicious » July 17th, 2017, 3:15 pm

Feeling a little wiped out today, I decided to keep it close to home in case I decided to bail. Seemed like a good chance to check out the remains of the fire in the gorge.

I started out from Horsetail Falls. There were a TON of people--I think I got the backup from when it was closed. Yet I somehow kept hitting the sweet spot where they stopped for pictures, to round up unruly children, or whatever, and I was able to push past into a long stretch where I was all alone. Almost all the way up to Triple Falls was a peculiarly solitary experience.

Coming around that bend towards the top where the trail's in rough shape from downed trees, I was suddenly face to face with a mommy deer and two little spotty baby deer. I'm really not a particularly quiet hiker, but I guess she didn't hear me coming--she jumped straight up in the air like a cat!

Past the deer blockade, I went up as far as the Oneonta - Horsetail Creek junction. Somebody left their trash at the campsite there--soup cans in the firepit and some other bits of miscellaneous trash. I wasn't equipped to carry anything out, so it's still there. If you're headed up that way, maybe bring a bag?

Back down and out towards the Oneonta trailhead. I wasn't totally clear from the news reports, but it looked like the fire was from that viewpoint loop off the main trail there--#424A. So that's the way I went. And indeed I found it, but if I hadn't been looking I could see easily walking right past it. The fire was all on the cliff face, just barely coming up over the lip. It didn't touch the trail at all. I didn't even smell it until the wind picked up. This is at the viewpoint at the west end of the loop. It's difficult to imagine anything other than someone standing at the viewpoint and flicking their cigarette or other smoking materials over the edge starting that.

Back at road level, the head-in parking area just west of Oneonta Gorge is still blocked off, presumably due to falling rocks. Parking was at a premium even on a Monday, with cars squeezed everywhere. One was literally halfway into the traffic lane (complete with tickets and "TOW" markings all over the windows).

I took a look down the gorge as I walked by, and though it wasn't the madhouse you see in some of the pictures lately, there were clearly plenty of people. Not for me.

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